Hurrah, Hurrah, for the Pope County GOP for standing with Councilman Paul Northcut. I’m still looking for a letter from one of his fellow members of the local Ministerial Alliance, particularly from Russellville, who will take a stand. Maybe they have, but the letter has not been published, yet. Some pastors would not dare to offend a parishioner, especially a big donor. A highly respected guest columnist for The Courier’s Friday editions, Dr. Don Ott, evangelist/writer/preacher/counselor, wrote two very poignant columns this past fall about the ills of our society and the cures for them. Maybe I missed any letters of encouragement from fellow clergy that were published. His latest column in Friday’s (Dec. 30, 2011) paper shares some wisdom from “The Bible.” Don’t know whether he planned it or not, but his “four Ps” for being more productive, have an acronym, REAP = Reaffirm, Establish, Articulate and Persevere.

Letsy Goza

Russellville

Another response to Pope County GOP

I am writing in response to the letter from the Pope County Republican Party on Jan. 1. It seems that the county Republican chapter, which I assume does not speak for all Republicans in our community, is misrepresenting and muddling the issues concerning the City Council special meeting of Dec. 23.

The letter stated that “the actual actions taken by the council are not the subject of this response, but the apparent message being sent by the council is. What was heard by many of us is that there is no room for faith, personal beliefs or principles in government.” I attended the meeting, and it was clear that the City Council sent no such message.

As reported by The Courier, the resolution states in part the City Council and mayor “believe the personal statements contained in the email correspondence of Alderman Chaplain Paul Northcut to be inappropriate and improper conduct of an elected public official sworn to uphold the laws of the State of Arkansas and United States.” No one has implied that Northcut should be restricted in the exercise of his freedoms of religion and speech. I and many others in this community have supported his ministry. We all support his right to express his views. However, he used his position as alderman to inappropriately express offensive views and to “persuade” a member of the Planning Commission to withdraw from consideration for reappointment because he was not willing to unlawfully discriminate in evaluating potential business applicants, so the City Council correctly took positive action to express that Northcut acted inappropriately.

The letter stated that “there were references made to Hitler and violations of the Constitution in response to an official using his morals and faith to guide his judgment.” This is incorrect and misleading. Those references were made in discussion of the government discriminating against certain groups of citizens.

The separation of church and state is not the issue here, so why did the Pope County Republican Party state in its letter, “The Constitution of the United States makes no reference to a separation of Church and State?” This statement is extraneous and intentionally deceptive.

While we all want to put this unfortunate episode behind us, it is important to recognize the lessons learned. The Pope County Republican Party should remember the words of Ronald Reagan: “Facts are stubborn things.”

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states: "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Based on the letter from the Pope County GOP, they would like to see that portion of the Constitution ignored.